Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRICING TELECOMMUNICATION TRANSACTIONS
Technical Field
This invention relates to communications networks, and more particularly to a
system and method for pricing telecommunication transactions made over a
communication network.
Background of the Invention
The use of automatic accounting systems to rate telephone calls is well
known in the art of communication networks. In a tvaical automatic acco«ntinn
system, when a call is first dialed, control equipment in the originating
office
determines whether the call is billable (i.e. not covered by a monthly rate).
If the call is
billable, an accounting record is created for the purpose of recording: the
number of
the calling telephone, the number of the receiving telephone, the time the
call was
answered, and the time the call was terminated. The information in the
accounting
record can then be used to "rate" the call.
Rating the call refers to the process by which the charge for the call is
determined. It involves: (1 ) calculating the distance between the calling and
called
end offices; and (2) applying the appropriate rate - based on the calculated
distance,
the date on which the call was made, the time of day at which the call was
made, and
the call duration. Rating is not customer specific, and is conventionally
performed in
batch. It is to be distinguished from billing, which is customer specific.
Furthermore,
although billing is conventionally performed in batch, like rating, the batch
times for
billing and rating are usually different.
Billing is the process of aggregating a customer's rated calls over a period
of
time to determine the customer's bill for the period. Typically, the period is
a month
and the aggregation yields the customer's monthly phone bill. An architecture
currently used for generating customer bills is shown in Fig. 1.
Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown a calling telephone 102, a called
telephone
104, a telephone network switch 106 and a Call Detail Database (CDD) 108. An
Automatic Message Accounting (AMA) record, represented by a block 110, is also
shown. As indicated by the figure, a billable call may be initiated at
telephone 102 and
routed through switch 106, e.g., an American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Inc.
(AT&T) 4ESS~ switch, to telephone 104. The switch generates AMA record 110,
CA 02198798 1999-07-26
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which includes the information necessary to rate the call. The AMA records is
passed
to the CDD where it is stored until the end of the customer's billing period.
At the end
of the billing period, AMA record 110 and all other AMA records generated for
the
customer are retrieved from the CDD and used to calculate the customer's bill.
One way to generate a customer bill is to simply compute a charge for each
AMA record stored in the CDD and then aggregate the charges. However,
generating
a bill usually involves more than a straight forward aggregation.
Modifications to the
aggregate may be necessary. Typically, modifications to the aggregate are
necessary
because of the imprecise rating system of applying a general rate to each
call, without
taking into consideration whether a customer subscribes to a billing service
or plan.
For example, customers who subscribe to plans, such as AT&T's True USA~, may
be entitled to discounts on some or all of their calls; however a general
rate, that does
not account for the plan(s), is applied to all of the customer's ratable
calls.
Accordingly, at the end of the billing period modifications must be made to
the
customer's aggregate bill to reflect the appropriate discount(s). After the
bill is
modified to reflect the discount(s), it is sent to the customer for payment.
Summary of the Invention
It has been recognized that, since the present rating systems cannot provide
rating records that incorporate the modifications necessary to reflect a
particular billing
plan, such procedures are necessarily postponed until the end of the billing
period.
As such, certain types of billing options cannot be implemented. However, in
the
competitive telecommunication service market, it is advantageous for a service
provider to offer as many billing alternatives as possible. Therefore, in
accordance
with the present invention, a system has been realized that is capable of
processing
incoming accounting records on a real-time basis so as to reflect the billing
services
to which a particular customer may subscribe.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a
method for pricing a call made over a network by a customer of the network;
wherein
the amount that the customer is to be billed for the call is determined in
real-time from
customer specific data available to the network and wherein said customer
specific
data comprises a conditional discount corresponding to a predetermined bill
value, the
method comprising the steps of: (a) generating a record that describes the
call; (b)
using said record and the customer specific data to determine a priced call
value for
CA 02198798 1999-07-26
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the call; (c) updating the customer's current bill by adding said priced call
value to the
customer's balance; and (d) applying the conditional discount to the
customer's
balance when the customer's balance exceeds the predetermined bill value.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided
a system for pricing a call made over a network by a customer of the network;
wherein
the amount that the customer is to be billed for the call is determined in
real-time from
customer specific data available to the network and wherein said customer
specific
data comprises a conditional discount corresponding to a predetermined bill
value, the
system comprising: (a) means for generating a record that describes the call;
and (b)
means for using said record and the customer specific data to determine a
priced call
value for the call; (c) means for updating the customer's current bill by
adding said
priced call value to the customer's balance; and (d) means for applying the
conditional
discount to the customer's balance when the customer's balance exceeds the
predetermined bill value.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a Real-Time Analysis Engine
(RAE) updates customers' bills in real-time by applying customer specific data
to
accounting records. In a typical update, a customer initiates a call that is
routed
through an originating telephone network switch. The switch generates an
accounting
record for the call, and the record is passed to the RAE where the call is
rated. The
RAE then matches the rated call to a customer, locates that customer's billing
data,
and applies any customer specific discounts to the rated call. The process of
rating
and discounting a call is referred to as "pricing the call", and the result of
the pricing
process is referred to as a "priced call value". Once a priced call value is
generated
for the customer's call, it may be added to other priced call values for the
customer to
produce a current bill for the customer. Since the server performs call
pricing in real-
time, the customer's current bill may be kept up to date on a real-time basis.
Preferably, the customer's current bill is saved in a Summary Database (SD)
within
the RAE, and the priced call values are saved in the CDD.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a prior telephone call billing system.
Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a telephone call billing system in accordance
with
a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 is a block diagram of an alternative telephone call billing system in
accordance with the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a second alternative telephone call billing
system
in accordance with the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a flowchart depicting the steps involved generating real-time call
prices and real-time customer balances according to the present invention.
Fig. 6 is a block diagram of a telephone call billing system according to the
present invention, in which calls may be routed based on real-time pricing
information.
Fig. 7 is a block diagram of an alternative telephone call billing system
according to the present invention, in which calls may be routed based on real-
time
pricing information.
Fig. 8 is a block diagram of a second alternative telephone call billing
system
according to the present invention, in which calls may be routed based on real-
time
pricing information.
Detailed Description
Referring to Fig. 2, there is shown a block diagram of a telephone system in
accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As can be
seen
from the figure, a call may be initiated at a first telephone 202 and directed
to a
second telephone 204. The call is routed through a network switch 206 that
generates an AMA record 210 for the call and passes the AMA record to a CDD
208.
It should be noted here that there are an abundance of protocols and
transmission
media that may be used for passing the data from the switch to the CDD. For
example, suitable protocols include the well known File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) and
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; and suitable transmission
media
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include twisted shielded pair wires, fiber optic lines, coaxial cable, and
wireless links.
Moreover, these protocols and media are suitable for use in all data transfers
and
queries hereinafter described.
In any event, once the AMA record has been passed to the CDD, it is
available for use in pricing the call. To this end, the AMA record is passed
to a Real
Time Analysis Engine (RAE) 212, which may be a general purpose computer
capable
of running the software necessary to implement the invention. The RAE applies
any
customer specific billing parameters to the AMA record to produce a processed
AMA
record. It then passes both the AMA record and the processed AMA record back
to
the CDD for storage. A method for passing the data back to the CDD is
disclosed in
co-pending, commonly assigned, US Patent Application Serial No.: 08/607,983 -
entitled "Compression and Buffering of a Stream with Data Extraction
Requirements"
- which application is incorporated herein by reference.
The RAE performs its functions the instant the switch passes the AMA record
to the CDD (i.e. it performs call pricing in real-time). In order to achieve
real-time
processing of AMA records the invention must overcome two primary obstacles.
First,
the customer specific data is fragmented across multiple business units, with
no
cohesive notion of an integrated customer profile. This situation is depicted
in Fig. 2,
which shows several customer profile databases 214, 216 and 218. As shown in
the
figure, the invention overcomes this obstacle through the use of an integrated
customer profile database located within the RAE. Software tools update the
integrated customer profile database in response to updates of the individual
customer profiles 214, 216 and 218 so that the integrated database always
contains
current information on all customers.
The second obstacle to performing real-time pricing of telephone calls is the
sheer volume of customer and telephone call data. The volume makes it
difficult to
store, rate, and query call data in real-time. To surmount this obstacle the
invention
accumulates summary information as each individual call (AMA) record is
received
and rated in real-time. It is generally desirable for a telephone network to
maintain a
customer's current bill. Thus, one type of accumulated summary information may
be
current bills for each network customer. Nevertheless, it may be useful to
accumulate
other types of summary information for particular customers. The nature of the
accumulated summary information for a particular customer depends upon the
services subscribed to by that customer. For example, a customer may subscribe
to
a plan in which calls made during the hours between 5:OOpm and 9:OOam receive
a
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10% discount; in which case it is useful to maintain a summary field
containing the
number of minutes of calls that the customer has made during the discount
period.
It may also be useful to accumulate summary information across customers.
For example, it may be desirable for marketing purposes to know customers'
total
5 expenditure on a particular plan for a given billing period. In such a case,
the prices of
all calls made under the subject plan, regardless of the customer, may be
aggregated
for the given billing period to provide a current total expenditure on the
plan.
In any case, the summary information is stored in a Summary Database (SD)
213 that is located within the in the RAE. Thus, in the preferred embodiment,
AMA
records and processed AMA records are stored in the CDD, while summary
information is stored in the SD. Nevertheless, it should be noted that many
alternative
storage schemes may be employed without departing from the spirit of the
invention.
For example, in one alternative scheme, AMA records are stored in the CDD,
summary information are stored in the SD, and processed AMA records are stored
in
both the CDD and SD.
There are many applications in which the priced call data provided by the
present invention may be used. These include those situations in which a
person
rents telephone equipment or services and must pay for the usage of the
equipment
or service at the end of the rental period. The present invention allows the
rental
company to bill for usage without adding any hardware or software in the
rental
equipment. All that is required is that the rental company be given access to
the data
provided by the present invention. One way to provide such access is by
allowing the
rental company to query the SD, and/or CDD, directly through a network
connection.
An example of a rental application for the present invention involves
including
cellular phones in rental cars. The rental car company can bill for inclusion
of the
cellular phone based on the renter's usage. This is done by resetting the
cellular
phone account at the time of rental and placing a query to the network
servicing the
phone at the time of return. The cellular phone account balance - kept current
in
accordance with the present invention - is simply added to the rental
customer's bill.
As an option, the rental customer can be provided with a detailed bill that
includes the
price of each call made during the rental period.
Referring now to Fig. 3, there is shown an alternative preferred embodiment
of a telephone system in accordance with the present invention. As shown in
the
figure, a call may be initiated at a first telephone 302 and directed to a
second
telephone 304. The call is routed by a network switch 306, which generates an
AMA
record 310 for the call. The AMA record is passed to a RAE 312 which applies
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customer specific parameters to the AMA record to produce a processed AMA
record. The AMA record and processed AMA record are then passed to a CDD 308
for storage.
Like the RAE of Fig. 2, the RAE of Fig. 3 includes a SD313. The RAE of Fig.
3 also includes an integrated customer profile - although, it should be noted
that for
simplicity of presentation the individual customer profile databases are not
shown in
Fig. 3, nor in the figures that follow. Also, like the RAE of Fig. 2, the RAE
of Fig. 3
accumulates summary information as each individual call record is received and
rated in real-time, the summary information being stored in the SD 313. As in
the
prior described embodiment, alternative schemes may be employed for the
storage of
the AMA records, processed AMA records, and summary information.
Fig. 4 shows another preferred embodiment of a telephone system in
accordance with the present invention. In the Figure 4 embodiment, as in the
previous embodiments, a call initiated at a first telephone 402 may be
directed to a
second telephone 404 through a network switch 406, which generates an AMA
record 410. However, in the Fig. 4 embodiment the AMA record is passed to a
Rating
Complex (RC) 412. The RC is a unit which performs the functions of the CDD and
RAE, and may therefore be characterized as a combined CDD and RAE. As shown in
the figure, the RC may include a SD 413 for storing the summary information
separately from the AMA records and processed AMA records. As in the prior
described embodiments, alternative schemes may be employed for the storage of
the
AMA records, processed AMA records, and summary information.
It should be noted that although all three embodiments discussed above
depict a call as being initiated from a first telephone and directed to a
second
telephone, it is possible that calls may be initiated by, and directed to,
many different
types of communication devices. For example, a call may be initiated by a fax
machine and directed to a personal computer. Moreover, a call may be initiated
by a
single communication device and directed to multiple communication devices.
For
example, a call may be initiated by a fax machine and directed to multiple
independent personal computers. For purposes of this description, each
instance of a
single initiating call being directed to a different terminating device will
be considered
an independent call.
Fig. 5 shows, in flowchart form, a procedure that a RAE may use to perform
real-time processing of AMA records for a customer and maintain a current bill
for the
customer. In the following description of the flowchart references will be
made to the
embodiment shown in Fig. 2.
a
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Upon receiving an AMA record from CDD 208, the first step RAE 212 takes is
to rate the call (step 302). It must then match the rated call to the customer
(step304)
so that customer specific parameters can be applied to the call. Several well
known
techniques can be used to match the rated call to the customer. One such
technique
uses Automatic Number Identification (ANI). In an ANI system, the number of
the
telephone station from which a call is initiated is determined and used to
identify the
party who initiated the call. Accordingly, in the Fig. 2 embodiment, the
number of
telephone 202 may be determined and passed to the RAE along with the AMA
record. The RAE may then cross-reference the number to the customer profile
containing the customer specific data to be used for the current call. Once
the
appropriate profile has been determined, the RAE applies the customer specific
data
to the rated call to produce a priced call value (step 306). The priced call
value may
be added to the customer's previous balance to create a new balance, or
"current bill"
(step 308). Finally, the priced call value (processed AMA record) is stored in
the
CDD, and the current bill (summary information) is stored in the SD (step
312). As
described in relation to Fig. 2, an alternative scheme is to store both the
priced call
value and current bill - collectively termed "the priced call data" - in the
SD; in which
case, step 312 would involve storing the priced call value and the current
bill in the
SD.
As an optional step in the procedure of Fig. 5, the RAE may adjust charges for
old calls to reflect certain types of billing plans (step 310). For example, a
customer
may subscribe to a plan in which the customer receives a conditional 10%
discount
on all calls, the condition being that the customer exceed $100.00 in total
charges for
a given billing period. In such a scenario, calls will initially be billed at
the full rate,
until such time that the customer reaches $100.00 in total charges. Thus, if
the
customer does reach $100.00 before the end of the billing period, not only
will
successive calls need to be discounted by 10%, but all previous calls will
need to be
discounted by 10%. This requires that prices generated for the previous calls
be
retroactively adjusted.
The priced call data provided through the RAE may be used as a basis for
making call routing decisions. An embodiment capable of performing this
function is
shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 6 is the same as Fig. 2 with two exceptions: (1) the
omission of
the individual customer profile databases, and (2) the addition of a
datalink614. As
shown in the figure, a call may be initiated at a telephone 602 and routed to
a
telephone 604 through a network switch 606. The switch generates an AMA record
610 that is passed to a CDD 608, and then on to an RAE 612 for processing. As
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described above, the RAE may use the AMA records to generate priced call data
in
the form of priced call values and current bills. This priced call data may be
stored in
SD 613.
As part of the process of routing a call, switch 606 may query the RAE for
some or all of the priced call data via datalink614. In this manner, the data
returned
in response to the query may be used by the network and/or customer in
deciding
how the call should be routed. A method that may be used to query the RAE is
disclosed in co-pending, commonly assigned, US Patent Application Serial No.:
08/446,170 - entitled "Method for Querying Incrementally Maintained Databases"
-
which application is incorporated herein by reference. An illustrative
scenario in which
a call is routed based on priced call data is described below, with reference
to Fig. 6.
As part of a rental car agreement a customer is provided with a cellular
phone. The customer is not to be billed for the cellular phone based on usage,
however, the customer is not to exceed a predetermined usage allowance during
the
rental period. The amount of usage allowance expended by the customer is
maintained as summary information by the RAE. When the customer initiates a
call
from the cellular phone (represented by telephone 602) switch 606, which may
be the
originating office switch, queries the RAE via datalink 614 to determine
whether or
not the customer has enough allowance remaining to complete the call to the
desired
terminating station (represented by telephone 604). If the customer does not
have
sufficient allowance remaining, switch 606 does not route the call to
telephone 604,
but rather takes some alternative action, such as allowing the customer to
dial an
alternative number. As an added feature, the network may initiate an
announcement
to the customer via a voice response unit, informing the customer that he does
not
have sufficient allowance to cover the desired call and that the customer may
dial an
alternative number.
Many variations are possible in the above-described rental scenario. For
instance, upon the initiation of a call by the rental customer, a query may be
generated, and an indication that the customer has exceeded his allowance may
be
returned. However, rather than simply preventing the customer from making the
call,
the customer may be notified that he has exceeded his balance and may be given
the
option to continue at an additional cost.
In addition, there are many possible alternative embodiments of the Fig. 6
system, each of which are capable of using real-time priced call data to route
calls.
One such alternative embodiment is realized by making a small modification to
the
embodiment shown in Fig. 6. Instead of providing a datalink from the switch to
the
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RAE, a two-way datalink 616 may be provided between the switch an the CDD.
Thus,
queries from the switch may be made directly to the CDD, and the CDD can pass
the
desired data back to the switch. Of course, in such an embodiment it is
necessary
that the desired data be present in the CDD. In this regard, the system may be
set up
so that the RAE passes all possible desired data, e.g., current bills, back to
the CDD
when it performs its real-time pricing calculations.
Further embodiments capable of using the real-time pricing data are shown in
figures 7 and 8. Figures 7 and 8 are analogous to figures 3 and 4,
respectively. Fig. 7
shows telephones 702 and 704, network switch 706, AMA record 710, RAE 712
(including SD 713) and CDD 708. Fig. 7 also shows a two-way connection 714
between the switch and RAE, and a two-way connection 716 between the RAE and
the CDD. These connections facilitate the querying of the RAE as part of the
call
routing process. In particular, two-way connection 714 allows the RAE to pass
to the
switch information which has been requested by the switch as part of a query.
Two-
way connection 716 allows for the transfer of information from the CDD to the
RAE in
the event that information requested by the switch is stored in the CDD and is
not
immediately available at the RAE; in which case the RAE may query the CDD for
the
information and then pass it on to the switch.
Fig. 8 shows telephones 802 and 804, network switch 806, AMA record 810
and RC 812 (including SD 813). Fig. 8 also shows a two-way connection 814
between the switch and the RC. The two-way connection allows the RC to answer
queries that are generated by the switch as part of the routing process.
